0552 Sheridan to Polson

30^th June 2016

I go in search of the Sheriff, and find a Lake !

The heavy rain had obviously stopped  quite soon after I went to sleep, so although everything was wet, the ground wasn’t going to be a problem for getting the car back up to the road – Nor had the river risen and burst its banks during the night !  So I got sorted and packed up, and headed out.  Not 100 yards up the road I spied some other campers, and as they waved, I drove up and had a chat.  Colin, a Chilean guy called Enzo, I think, and a girl whose name I didn’t catch.  As usual, they wanted to know all about the trip, and we had a fun time for about half an hour before I eventually set off back down the dirt road, out of the hills and back down to the main road at Sheridan.

From Sheridan it was only a few miles north until I hit the main interstate, which took me through Butte, where I stopped for fuel. While I was filling up I noticed an older guy on a Honda Gold Wing trike, with a trailer, filling up at another pump. On the way back from paying, I stopped to comment on his trike and we started chatting.  His name is Ken Welch, and he lives in Pensacola Florida, a long way from here.  Ken is not lightweight either – And if he reads this I am sure he won’t mind me saying that – plus he is 76, if I remember correctly.  It turns out he is on his way back from not just Alaska, but

Prudhoe Bay – Yes, he rode the haul road on his bike trike !  I was most impressed, and we chatted for quite a long time about some of our mutual adventures on the Ice Trucker’s Highway.  His wife won’t travel with him – He said she won’t even get on his bike for a photo ! – but he just loves to travel, and has had all sorts of people join him for sections of his trip.  He made the trailer himself from one of this car roof boxes, and can sleep out if he wants to, although he normally stays in motels.  Eventually he had to leave because he said “my wife calls me every day and I told her I would be on the road by 10 am today, and if she finds out I am still talking at 11.15 am she will get upset” !   Good on you, Ken, great to meet you, and I will look you up when I am next in Pensacola !

Once back on the road, I turned off and headed up through Anaconda before joining the interstate again for the run into Missoula. Nothing too spectacular anywhere along the way, although as you get closer to Missoula you start to see lots of very long freight trains – Some coal, some containers, and quite a lot of sawn timber.  Missoula is a big centre – Not only for the rail, but there is also a big university here – Quite a big town.

It is also the home of Sheriff Carl Ibsen – Those of you who remember my 2012 trip in the Elise will recall that I met an off-duty Sheriff down in Utah who gave me one of my first Police Medallions, and invited me to come and see him when I got to Missoula.   Which I did, and we went out for dinner and had a great time.  He had retired as Sheriff in 2014 – Sheriff is a political appointment for 4 years only – but when I went to City Hall they said he was still around but could not give me his phone number, but would pass on my details to him.  Not much more I could do, so I left City Hall to head out of town.

As I did so, I tried my daughter Sarah’s phone one more time – She lives in Houston Texas and today is her birthday but every time I tried to call I got an “unable to connect” message.  It turned out that she had run out of credit on her phone, and now it was topped up, I finally got through !  So I sat outside City Hall Missoula amongst all the Sheriff’s vehicles chatting for a while, and then headed out of town.

From Missoula I decided to head north. I have a problem in that today is the 30^th June, tomorrow Friday the 1^st of July is Canada Day, and Monday 4^th July is American Independence Day – So this weekend is going to be a humdinger all over both countries, and the chances of getting space in a camp site are going to be zero. So I have decided to try and stay off the beaten track, stay in the US until the 2^nd July, then cross into Canada and hope that Monday will be a bit better up there.  So to this end I decided to head up to Glacier National Park, but to stop tonight at some place called Polson, which seemed to be out of the way on the edge of a big lake.

Driving up towards Polson there were increasing mountains to my right – The southern end of the Rockies, called the Mission Range.   It was a hot afternoon by now, in the mid thirties, but it was quite a pleasant drive, if uneventful compared to the last few days.

Then, as I neared Polson, I came over the brow of a hill and there was this blue blue lake – I couldn’t believe it.  As I drove into Polson, instead of a sleepy little town, it was jumping – It turns out this is the centre not only for water sports on the lake, but also hiking, 4 WDriving, etc etc in the surrounding hills and forests !  In fact the first camp site I went to was already full, so I decided to go for a rather nice KOA campsite that was up on a hillside over looking the lake.  They had a couple of spots left, but they were not cheap, but as I had been in the forests for the past few nights, and planned on being in them for the next few nights as well, I thought I would spoil myself, get laundry done etc.

It was certainly the first campsite I have ever been to where each site has its own gas bbq – and a very nice one too !  After meeting my very nice neighbours Lou and Norma who were from Oregon, we chatted for a while, and then I celebrated by cooking a delicious steak on the provided bbq, and sat there in the provided table and chairs (no wooden benches here !) and watched the sunset over the lake.  What a camp site !  And as for getting off the beaten track, I think I found myself in the centre of Montana’s activity for the July 4^th weekend – There are certainly no vacant places in the camp site after tonight !  So I enjoyed it while I could !

Pics are here :-  https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/6303168720922610321?authkey=Gv1sRgCJG7s8CAiIj3owE